But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

All Scriptures taken from the New King James Version

Without faith it’s impossible to please God, but without faith, it’s impossible to participate in any exchange in the Kingdom of God. Faith is the currency. Faith is your spending power. Faith is what gives you an audience with God.

When Jesus spoke to His disciples “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1), He told a parable about a persistent widow who won over the ruling of an unbelieving, cold judge who ruled in her favor because he feared that by her persistence she would wear him out (v. 5).

Jesus quickly turned the point to God who would not turn a deaf ear to His own “who cry out day and night to Him” (v. 7). However, in verse eight, the real issue in question is not the forbearance of God towards our prayers but rather, “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Walking with God

When it comes to faith in God, we must believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We all believe that God is, but what hinders us from diligently seeking Him? When the Son of Man comes—even in our daily lives—will He see our faith in continual prayer?

The writer of Hebrews has in mind the prophet Enoch who was miraculously “taken away so that he did not see death” (Heb. 11:5), but Enoch’s testimony was “that he pleased God,” and the only other information we have is found in Genesis 5:24:

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

When God came daily in the life of Enoch, He found a man whose heart was after God—a man who wanted to walk with God. God is always searching for men, women, and even children, who have such a heart:

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9a

To be loyal means to be faithful, and to be faithful, one must be full of faith. As God comes to our lives daily, will He find a heart like that of Enoch? Will He find us in hot pursuit of the One we say we love?

Faith-Filled

We each have a calling and a purpose in this world, and that purpose is foremost our role in advancing Christ’s Kingdom in every area of life. This requires tremendous spiritual and physical energy, and the secret to an endless power supply is a faith-filled walk with God. The apostle Paul worked harder than any other apostle in his ministry, yet he still declared, “yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).

What does it mean to be faith-filled? It means to walk with God to the degree that you live with a constant expectation of God’s moving. Those unfamiliar with this way of living often frown upon this outlook saying that such expectation reveals a desperate need for miracles in order to believe. In other words, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

This would limit faith in God to only being a belief in His existence, but as the writer of Hebrews says, those who come to God must not only believe that He is, they must believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). To believe in God to the degree that you diligently seek Him leads to rewards in life. God is giving us an incentive to seek Him. He wants to do good things for us and for the world, and faith-filled prayer plays a significant role in that.

Praying for Greater Things

Without faith it’s impossible to please God, and this means so much than a simple belief in God’s existence. The devil himself believes in God’s existence, but the devil expects nothing in terms of rewards from God nor does he expect God to move on his behalf. For us, we should live in a constant expectation that our life and this world is alive with the activity of the Holy Spirit and the angels, and we should be praying for even greater things to take place.